Lunch Squawk Box

Had a farewell break fast yesterday with my mates at Planet Hollywood: one of them would be leaving for Blighty next week to pursue his Master. I haven’t been to the Planet for a while and miss the place. We had good fun and enjoyed a good meal. The ambience was great and the spread was fantastic, generous and varied. My minor complaints are the porridge was wayyy too salty (I abandoned mine after four scoops) and the pasta queue was wayyy too long (so much so I missed the call for prayers). And for prayers, I just sauntered to the Millennium Hotel across the street.

I reached home after 2130 and hence missed Hooping Dulcinea, the Taiwanese drama I’m currently glued to. Yes, I’m a sucker for Korean/Taiwanese/Chinese/Hong Kong dramas (modern ones please, I don’t favour those set in ancient times). Not for me are Bollywood films.

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A girl who I always meet at the bus stop had her handbag snatched on Monday morning. The eye witness, a Chinese lady who is also a bus commuter, told me about it yesterday. Apparently, the girl fell onto the road, gnashed her arms on the asphalt and soon had blood on her arms as a result of the fall.

Times must be so bad that people have to resort to such lowly act of cowardice. I know how it must have felt like - because I was once a victim myself. One minute I was walking without a care in the world, the next I was on the road and I even hit my head on the road as the cowards grabbed me from behind, sent me spinning before I landed on the unkind surface of the road. Heck, I even have scars today to serve as an unpleasant reminder of what happened then.

My ‘controversial’ wish is for this country to embrace hudud to curb and arrest crime. Heck, even my Chinese neighbours opine that hudud law would solve most criminal offences. But unfortunately, we have people protesting to these and (so-called) Muslims too (surprise, surprise). Who are we to defy God’s word? Heck, I believe that even borders on doubting God or syirik (go on challenging God’s word and one might even be an apostaste without realising it). And these are more or less the same people who readily declare Pete a blasphemous Muslim... duh! So please pots, all you self-righteous buggers who label things and people as you see fit, please stop calling the kettle black.

I also don’t want to meet my Maker and be held accountable for not performing my duty as a khalifah in this world by upholding my religion and all it stands for.

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On to a lighter topic: as we already know by now, FedEx silenced his critics and recorded a lucky 13th Grand Slam by beating Andy Murray in the US Open. I don’t have anything against Murray but am delighted with FedEx’s win. What did I say before, the world does love a beaten hero who rises and fights back despite earlier setbacks. And he is such a humble person, delivering his post-match speech with praises for his opponents, the crowd and the game.